The Turkish government will say “no” to Sweden and Finland for joining NATO, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said and added that Ankara communicated his policy to relevant actors.
“We told our relevant friends that we would say ‘no’ to Finland and Sweden joining NATO,” Erdoğan said on May 19 while addressing a group of Turkish youngsters on the Commemoration of Atatürk, Youth and Sports Day.
“We said that NATO is a security organization, we cannot accept the existence of terrorist organizations in such an organization,” he said and stressed Turkey would “resolutely continue this policy.”
The two Nordic countries harbor the PKK and YPG groups and even provide them “financial and arms” support, the president said and also pointed to arms restrictions on Turkey as a reason for Ankara’s opposition to the two countries becoming part of NATO.
“The two countries, especially Sweden, are home to terror. They also imposed arms sanctions on us,” Erdoğan explained.
Several European countries, including Sweden and Finland, restricted arms exports to Turkey following the country’s cross-border operation into northeast Syria in 2019.
Hurriyet Daily News